Johnson, who spoke at the International Peace Coalition meeting on May 31, was, like Scott Ritter, scheduled to speak at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) on June 5-8. Unlike Ritter, he did not get pulled off his plane and have his passport seized by a harassing State Department. This morning, in a ten-minute video from St. Petersburg, he denounced the operation against Ritter, while emphasizing that the SPIEF would host 25,000 people, with “a significant number from the Global South who are very interested in where the world’s economy is headed and some of the political economic issues that are going to shape the future of that economy.”
On the passport, Johnson said: “[T]his is illegal … the State Department can seize your passport under three conditions: one as criminal evidence (evidence that’s part of a crime). Scott is not a criminal engaged with criminal activity.” Another is tax evasion, also not the case with Ritter. Johnson says: “Scott’s only offense that I can determine is his outspoken opposition to U.S. policy in Ukraine and in Palestine-Israel with respect to what Israel is doing to the Palestinian people.”
He went on: “It’s noteworthy that Scott’s not the only one that has been speaking out about this.” He names “Doug Macgregor; retired Lt. Col. Danny Davis; there’s Ray McGovern, former CIA officer; Phil Giraldi, another former CIA officer; myself; Scott Bennett, who served in the U.S. Army … so there are several of us that have voiced our legitimate concerns.” He added that Jeffrey Sachs and John Mearsheimer are in that group.
He said that taking an American citizen’s passport without even saying what the charges are, is “the kind of attitude that used to exist in the old Soviet Union during the Communist days.”
Whoever ordered it, he said, “it was a foolish move…. At a minimum this is going to gain Scott some attention and some coverage from the mainstream media which up to this point have gone out of their way to avoid any of us who are speaking out about the foolishness of U.S. policy, about the danger of U.S. policy in Ukraine, in particular with the prospect that the United States is on the verge of provoking a nuclear war with Russia, a war that has no foundation.”
Referring to the U.S. supply of weapons to Ukraine, he states: “I think all Americans would agree that if the Russians decided to start openly supplying medium-range missiles that could strike hundreds of miles inside U.S. territory, that could hit cities like Austin, San Antonio, Phoenix, Albuquerque. Do you think we would see that as a threat to the United States, one that would have to be responded to? Then why in the name of God, do we think we can do the same thing to Russia and not suffer any consequences! I know that myself, along with other, distinguished people like Ted Postol, are literally terrified that we’re moving towards a confrontation with Russia that the United States is not prepared to handle, and we foolishly keep looking in the mirror and telling ourselves that we’re the biggest, we’re the strongest—but it’s a lie.”
Noting that the U.S. has failed to stop the Houthis targeting ships in the Red Sea after six months of trying, he adds: “Be assured that the military in Russia is in no way comparable to what the military is in Yemen. The Russian military is a powerful force that needs to be taken seriously and the political leaders in Russia have made it very clear that the U.S. open support for using these weapons in Russia poses a clear danger to them and they will retaliate.”
He concludes: “The U.S. is in the process of turning itself into the old Soviet Union, and Russia has become a new safe haven for Christians and for whistleblowers. It is important that Americans stand up and protest this egregious action by the Biden Administration.”
